Pizzeria Regina parent company files for Chapter 11

May 22, 2015, 6:52am EDT

The parent company of Pizzeria Regina is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but the landmark New England pizza chain will survive even though it will close a few locations.A spokesman for Woburn-based Boston Restaurant Associates Inc. told The Boston Globe that the company entered bankruptcy proceedings in order to get out of several leases for restaurants at outlying malls with weak food court foot traffic.

Four of the company's restaurants — at the Emerald Square Mall in North Attenborough; Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua; Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester; and the Arsenal Project mall in Watertown — closed Wednesday and will not reopen, according to the Globe.About 30 people will lose their jobs as a result of the restaurant closings. Pizzeria Regina was founded in 1926 and has 17 locations throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Stop & Shop Opens Four Restaurant Offerings In Bay State Store

Stop & Shop is now offering customers a unique and varied assortment from four local restaurants at the Somerville, Mass., Stop & Shop. Customers can eat in or can order food to go from local restaurants Carol Ann’s Bake Shop, Fisherman’s Net, Salsa’s and The Sausage Guy. “This is a great opportunity to offer our customers a better shopping experience through a broader selection of restaurant-quality foods prepared for our customers on the spot,” said Joe Kelley, president of Stop & Shop New England Division. The restaurant area is located near the front of the store and is open seven days a week from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. All four restaurants will offer a variety of specialties: Carol Ann Bake Shop, with a storefront at Faneuil Hall in Boston, will offer fresh pastries; The Sausage Guy, a well-known Fenway Park vendor, brings sandwiches of sausage, peppers and onion; Fisherman’s Net, with a storefront at Faneuil Hall in Boston, will sell fried seafood, fresh-cut fries and chowder; and Salsa’s in South Boston and Hingham will offer favorite Mexican dishes.

The 177-unit franchise operation owned by the grandchildren of Carl’s Jr. founder Carl Karcher filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month. Frontier Star LLC and Frontier Star CJ LLC filed bankruptcy on July 27 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Arizona. The two entities operate 177 Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. units in Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, according to court filings. Each listed more than $10 million in debt. Jason LeVecke, a grandson of Karcher, is CEO of both entities, based in Guadalupe, Ariz. Owners also include two of his siblings, Carl and Margaret LeVecke.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Long Horn Steakhouse in Boston's Fenway Neighborhood Has ClosedIt looks like the sole Boston location of a casual steakhouse chain has closed its doors.

According to a poster on the Universal Hub site, LongHorn Steakhouse at the Landmark Center in the Fenway "abruptly closed" on Saturday, with a check on the chain's website showing that the restaurant has been removed from its location search and its specific page on the site now comes up as a 404 (page not found) error. Multiple calls placed to the Park Drive dining spot did not go through late this morning, with the phone ringing for a long period of time without going to voicemail. Another location of LongHorn Steakhouse was not able to confirm anything about the closure of the Fenway location, and we are currently waiting to hear back from the chain on why the restaurant might have closed.

[August 11 update: Eater Boston confirms that the Fenway location of LongHorn Steakhouse has indeed closed for good, with Hunter Robinson (manager of media relations and communications) saying the closure was a "business decision.")Other locations of LongHorn Steakhouse in Eastern Massachusetts appear to remain in operation, including ones in Reading, Tewksbury, Pembroke, Mansfield, Franklin, Marlborough, and others. (With the Boston location closing, there are currently no more LongHorn restaurants inside Route 128.)LongHorn Steakhouse's parent company is Darden, which operates such chains as Olive Garden, The Capital Grille, Yard House, and Seasons 52.The address for the now-closed LongHorn Steakhouse in the Fenway was 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA, 02215.

As summer gives way to fall, many families find that their busier schedules just don’t allow for dining out on a regular basis. But September offers restaurant owners and operators many restaurant marketing opportunities to help build traffic and sales.

September is a great time to roll out some of your restaurant’s top breakfast, chicken, mushroom and rice recipes as the entire month is devoted to those products.September also offers many special days and foods that can be worked into your restaurant marketing plan, including Acorn Squash, Apples, Apple Dumplings, Butterscotch Pudding, Cheese Pizza, Cheeseburgers, Cherries Jubilee, Cherry Popovers, Chocolate, Coffee Ice Cream, Corned Beef Hash, Cream-Filled Donuts, Guacamole, Hoagies, Hot Cross Buns, Ice Cream Cones, Linguine, Macademia Nuts, Pancakes, Peanuts, Pecan Cookies, Salami, Strawberry Cream Pie, Welsh Rarebit and White Chocolate.

Help guests celebrate the special people in their lives on days devoted to Mom, kids, grandparents, neighbors, parents and wives. And don’t forget that newspaper carriers, guys with beards, programmers, pharmacists, lumberjacks, hunters, fishermen, pirates and Hobbits also need some love.

It looks like the high-end doughnut craze may be continuing, with a new shop being planned for one of the busiest parts of Somerville.According to an article from Eater Boston, restaurateur and baker Kyriakos Kouzoukas is looking to open a store in Davis Square (tentatively called Davis Square Doughnuts) that would feature "specialty, gourmet" doughnuts along with "top of the line coffee." The Summer Street shop--which would be located near Rosebud American Kitchen & Bar--is in the very early stages of planning and there doesn't appear to be a specific timeline on its opening, though a buildout of the space might take approximately four months to complete (pending final approval from the city).Other high-end doughnut shops have opened in the Boston area over the past couple of years, including Union Square Donuts in Somerville and Blackbird Doughnuts in Boston's South End, and Kouzoukas--who once ran a chain of Central Massachusetts doughnut shops called Dozen Donuts--notes that gourmet doughnut shops are "popping up all over the country, here and there."The address for this proposed doughnut shop in Davis Square is 377 Summer Street, Somerville, MA, 02144.

Thursday, August 13, 2015Confirmed: Shake Shack Is Coming to Boston's Seaport District

It looks like a New York-based group of burger and shake places may be expanding further into the local area, with a new shop possibly coming to one of the hottest sections of Boston for development.

Eater Boston seems to confirm what an earlier Twitter post from @FortPointer indicated (via Bizapedia), that Shake Shack is apparently looking to open in the city's Seaport District. According to the article from EB, there is some chatter about the new Shake Shack opening at the upcoming 101 Seaport (a 17-story office tower with retail space on the ground floor), though this has not been confirmed as of yet. EB also says that locations of Chipotle (not confirmed) and Yoki (confirmed) are planning to open at 101 Seaport as well.

[August 18 update: Eater Boston now has confirmation that Shake Shack will indeed be coming to the Seaport District, though it will actually open next door to 101 Seaport in a mixed-use development called Watermark Seaport. (It looks like the new location won't open until sometime in 2017.) The new Shake Shack in the Seaport District will join other locations on Newbury Street in the Back Bay, Harvard Square in Cambridge, The Street Chestnut Hill, and Legacy Place in Dedham.The website for Shake Shack can be found at http://www.shakeshack.com/

Magic Bites Bakery to Replace Za'atar in Arlington

Aug. 23 2015

A new bakery and coffee shop is on its way to Arlington, taking over the space where several other food spots have been.

According to an article in the Arlington Advocate, Magic Bites Bakery is opening on Mass. Ave., moving into the space across from Arlington High School where Za'atar had been until recently closing, and before that, Loukoumaki Bakery, Bella Moto, and Ye Old Bake Shoppe. The post says that the upcoming place will offer freshly-made European and American pastries along with sandwiches, coffee, tea, and more, with seating possibly being added later this year or in early 2016. (The article also says that Magic Bites may add ice cream to its list of options at some point.)If all goes as planned, Magic Bites Bakery could be opening later this month.The address for this bakery and coffee shop in Arlington is: Magic Bites Bakery, 916 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington, MA, 02474.

new England restaurant group

Amuleto Mexican Table Opens on Moody Street in Waltham

August 21st 2015

A brand new Mexican dining spot has come to Waltham's "Restaurant Row," and it moves into the space where two other Mexican restaurants had been. According to a source within the restaurant industry, Amuleto Mexican Table opened this week on Moody Street, taking over the space where Habanero's Mexican Kitchen was, and before that, Tango Mango (a location of Tango Mango remains in operation in Newton). Very little is known about Amuleto Mexican Table at this point in time, and a menu has not yet been posted online as of yet; as soon as we find more information about the eatery, we will post an update here.The address for this new restaurant in Waltham is: Amuleto Mexican Table, 484 Moody Street, Waltham, MA, 02453. Its website will be at http://www.amuletorestaurant.com/